Green Building Committee

During 2010, the Green Building Committee will continue to support increasing standards for the new City of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles green building programs-particularly in that each program is wide-scaled and provides a model for other municipalities to follow. We will also be focused on the innovative green building programs of smaller cities-Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Irvine, Pasadena and Long Beach, among others.

The Committee will also work within the protocols of the new Sierra Club Cool Cities / U.S. Green Building Council partnership. The partnership was announced last month at the conference Greenbuild and will enhance Sierra Club's green building advocacy role through USGBC green building practice and policy expertise.

We resolve to begin a newsletter to convey information necessary to promote wider-scale support of local green building protocols-sharing details chapter-wide about green building program startups and improvements within Angeles Chapter boundaries, and beyond. In 2010, we resolve to strongly support requirements for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood in local green building programs.

Our Committee hopes that Angeles Chapter Sierra Club members will make a green building resolution of their own in 2010: to take time in the months ahead to attend hearings or write letters in support of green building programs in their own municipalities-and ask friends and neighbors to do the same. A good way to get started with this resolution: look through the information provided by the new Cool Cities /USGBC web outreach, and sign up in green building support mode.

The mission of the Green Building Committee continues to be support of the transformation of our built environment to one guided solely by green building practices. The Green Building Committee works with several other Angeles Chapter committees in support of energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, livable cities and preservation of natural landscapes. The Committee is also an active proponent of regenerative design and practices-and will begin to explore such concepts with greater emphasis in 2010.